Story+1975-08-23+Atlanta,+GA

“Does this bus…ever stop?...”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?”**

“Hey, Clarence (Clarence: “Yeah, what’s that, what’s that, man?”) I saw a friend of mine the other day (Clarence: “Oh yeah? Tell me about it”) I was walking down this street when suddenly on the other side I see this guy coming up, a familiar looking guy, he was with a girl, got a little baby with ‘em, and we get close and I recognize this guy was one of the guys I used to play with in my, in my old band, right…I say, I say, his name was Bobby, I said “Bobby, you know, what’s happening, what’s you been doing?” you know, we didn’t recognize each other first, you know, we said “Where’d you, where’d you get all that hair on your face?” you know, I ain’t seen him in a lot of years, he’s walking down the street with this girl, he said “Well, man, you know, I got married a few years ago and I got this little baby, you know,” and it’s always weird when you see one of your old friends like with, with a kid or something, you know, ‘cause that’s like, you know, a little, you know, that’s a little (?) whatever they are, you know, it’s like, he had his kid with him, it started me thinking about all these cats I used to see that was in my first band, right, they got married and settled down and stuff and the first cat was this dude, his name was, was Skibotts, he was this little Italian guy, right, he was like this little Italian guy, always wore three-quarter-length leather jackets, had their socks in their pants, had them nylon socks that you can see your ankles through, you know, (?) and, and pointed shoes, and he ran off, he was about seventeen, he ran off and got married with this girl named Bobbie and the next cat was this rhythm guitar player, he was like the cat with the pretty face, he was, all the girls always liked him and stuff, you know, and he got married, he was about twenty, right, and one by one they all like settled down and stuff, you know, I’m always pumping into cats, like I went in the supermarket the other day, this cat managing the supermarket, like I went to high school with and stuff so it started me thinking about how all these people settling down and, and stuff, and it must’ve been where this song, this song was, was at when that, that stuff went down, I guess…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”**

“(People yelling out requests) Yeah, we’re gonna get to all ‘em for you…here’s a song, here’s a song originally done in the early sixties…by a group called the Searchers…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “Every Time You Walk in the Room”**

“BAM!...about three years ago me and Steve, guitar man, and my bass player, Garry, we had this, we had this band, we had this band in Asbury Park, we worked in this little bar…there was this place called the Student Prince we was playing at all the time, right, and it was like this little club, you know, it was this little place we played at there…we'd been down playing in that area for about, you know, six or seven years and we're playing this club, we were in about fourth or fifth month at this club and we was trying at the time, we was trying to get this, like, get this, get some kind of record deal or something, you know, we was trying to figure how we was gonna get into the big time and stuff, you know, so, so we had these cats hustling for us in New York and these cats promising to bring down these managers, you know, “Man, I'm gonna bring the manager down from...these guys are gonna come down and listen to youse tonight so you better be real good” and stuff, you know, so we would play our...listen, boys (chuckles) so it's like, so me and Steve sat around late one night figuring out why we wasn't getting this break, you know, what was the matter? what, what we was missing? you figure you're always missing something, you know, if you can't get something going so we was going over it, we figured we had the right repertoire and stuff, we was playing like a lot of Chuck Berry songs and things and, and we figured we had the teen appeal, you know, because we had the bass player, had long hair and stuff, right? everybody, every, figure all, all the girls liked the bass player with the long hair, you know (chuckles) so we couldn't figure out what, what was the matter, right? (some guy in the crowd yells something about Clarence) this man knows already what was the matter (chuckles) you blew my whole thing…where you from?...go back there (chuckles) I don’t know, he blew my whole rap (chuckles) anyway (chuckles) anyway, it was late, late as hell, right, it was a late, nasty night (chuckles) and me and Steve was walking down the street, we didn't get, you know, we didn't care about nothing, we didn't, didn't, was doing nothing, we were just trying to get home, gonna watch some TV or something, you know so we was walking down the street like this…just the way we always walk…Steve always walked with his guitar ‘cause he don't trust nobody with his guitar so like, so like he always had his guitar with him, you know, so we was doing this thing…all of a sudden way down the end of the street we seen something coming, we didn't know what it was (a guy in the crowd: "A guy in a white suit!") Give me a break, give me a break! (crowd cheers) you’re gonna get punched out (crowd cheers)(chuckles) anyway, we didn't know what it was at the time (chuckles) so (chuckles) so we got a little closer and we could see it was, it was some, some, big, the biggest, the biggest thing we ever seen coming down on us at four in the morning out in the middle of Asbury Park, it was dark, it was raining and the guy was obviously carrying with him some appendage of malfeasance (chuckles) which appeared to be a saxophone (chuckles) (crowd cheers) so we duck in the doorway and from way down the end of the street we heard somebody playing a few notes there and didn't know what it was (Clarence plays) then there was nothing, there was no sound at all…we heard the footsteps coming closer…the footsteps coming closer…and the guy turned and started walking right at us…and we started walking right at him…was at this point I slowly took all the money out of my pocket and put it into his pocket (crowd cheers) didn't move…I hung my hat on what appeared to be the saxophone…which I figured at any moment I was going get whipped over the head with but all the guy did was...Steve (chuckles) it was like nothing…but, man, when we touched...Sparks fly on E Street... (…) Little Angel picks up Power and he slips on his jeans…puts on his t-shirt, puts on his pants and he puts on his, his tube socks and his sneakers and picks up a copy of Roy Orbison’s “Greatest Hits” for some inspiration, he walks outside, throws the album in the backseat…gets in, tries to start up his car (sound of a guitar and drums) starts her up (the guitar and drum sound again) starts her up (the guitar and drum sound) and tonight…she ain’t gonna go… so he gets out, checks up and down the street…if his car don’t start …pretty soon everything is gonna be gone…and he moves on down to the scene…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “The E Street Shuffle”**

“Here’s something that’ll be on the new album that should be out in a few weeks…it’s called “She’s the one”…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “She’s the One”**

“Here’s the title of our new album, it’s called, uh, uh, “Born to Run”…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “Born to Run”**

“Somebody requested this song, it was girl that requested this…it’s a song originally done by a group called the Crystals in the early sixties, alright…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “Then She Kissed Me”**

“This is your basic, uh…(tries the piano)…(?) this is the worst bench I ever sat on in my life – you can’t get to the piano…yes it is…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “For You”**

“This, this spaceman landed in, I don’t know if you read it in the newspapers or not, it was, I think it was in the local papers but they put it on like the second page, a spaceman landed in the pool, uh, uh, this morning in the Marriott, over at the Marriott Hotel, and they got, everybody got upset a little bit, you know, they didn’t know what he, what he wanted and stuff, he came out of the space machine and, and all, all he said was, uh, uh, I just want to tell some of you folks down here in Atlanta, ‘cause he came from like, uh, uh, I think he came from, it was Jupiter, I think he said he came from Jupiter, I only talked to him for a little while, didn’t talk to him for very long, you see, because he said he had to go, he had other business, had other things to go to, but he came down from Jupiter and he just wanted to tell youse that Kitty’s back so don’t be worried… (…) I don’t know how she got…you know how she got down here?…she take the train?...(Clarence: “Steve bought her a ticket”) how did she get here? she came on the plane?...down on that Delta Airlines with the, with the ducks on the wings…(Steve: “Monster bag”) she came in the Monster Bag (Clarence: “Right on”)(Steve: “Monster Bag”) Clarence’s got a Monster Bag he carries his girlfriends in (Clarence: “Right on”) she must’ve come in the Monster Bag (Steve: “Right on, in the Monster Bag”) watch out for the Monster Bag (chuckles)(Steve laughs)…she’s gonna get in that Monster Bag…with Clarence…here she comes…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, intro to “Kitty’s Back”**

“On the piano, Roy Bittan…give me two (the band “hits” twice)…on the guitar, Miami Steve…give me three (the band “hits” three times)…on the bass, Garry T…give me four (the band “hits” four times) oh…on the drums, Mighty Max…(the band “hits” five times)… on the organ, Dan Federici…then the King…the Duke of Soul…on the tenor sax, Clarence Clemons (crowd cheers)…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, middle of “Rosalita”**

“Clarence, Clarence, oh, my heart, I got a very weak heart, the doctor told me if I sing “Twist and Shout” that he wouldn’t be responsible, I don’t know, I may have a cardiac, I think my cardiac has been arrested (chuckles) I don’t know if I can finish the end of the song (Steve: “Can he do it?”) I don’t know, I don’t know (Steve: “Can he do it?”) I don’t know (Steve: “Can he do it?”) I don’t know (Steve: “Can he do it?”) I don’t know, I don’t, well, well, well, well, well, well…well, shake it a-baby… (…) It’s alright…if it’s all night…thank you…”
 * 23.08.75 Atlanta, GA, middle of “Twist and Shout”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//